Freedom Riders

A new traveling exhibition looks at six months in 1961 when more than 400 courageous Americans — old and young, black and white, men and women, Northern and Southern — risked their lives to challenge segregated facilities in the South. The “Freedom Riders” exhibition combines powerful photography and news coverage of the 1961 Freedom Rides and examines the movement from many perspectives —that of the Riders, the Kennedy administration, and the international community.

Freedom Riders is a traveling exhibition developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in partnership with AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Major funding for the traveling exhibition provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Exclusive corporate funding for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is provided by Liberty Mutual. Major funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Additional funding provided by Lynn Bay Dayton, Rodger & Dawn Nordblom, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers.